Coffee House
by PANDA Qiao
Summary: Shanghai, China, 2012: a brown-haired beauty from the Han dynasty is transported to modern day Shanghai due unknown reasons. Zhou Yu is an 18-year-old boy enjoying a cup of tea at his favourite café. What happens when their two worlds meet? Yu x Xiao.


Summary: Shanghai, China, 2012: a brown-haired beauty from the Han dynasty is transported to modern day Shanghai due unknown reasons. Zhou Yu is an 18-year-old boy enjoying a cup of tea at his favourite café. What happens when their two worlds meet? Yu x Xiao.

This idea came to me when I woke up this morning and I knew I just had to write it.

Enjoy!

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His eyelids fluttered shut at the sound of the low music playing in the background. It was the beginning of his favourite time of the week – the weekend, and his favourite thing to do was go to the coffee shop below his apartment and through the small alleyway early Saturday morning. He'd order his usual black coffee and then sit at the table in the corner. He'd just sit there, staring out at the sunrise or perhaps read his favourite book.

"Ah…" he murmured against the cool china. "What a beautiful morn-"

_THUD!_

His eyes snapped open in both confusion and annoyance – he was annoyed at the interruption of his silence but even more so confused at the loud noise – the café was empty apart from himself (the waitress had gone to the kitchen).

He adjusted his eyes to the bright shine of daylight and stifled a gasp – there, sat in front of him was a (very beautiful) young girl dressed in an elaborate Hanfu with a very complicated hairstyle adorned with flower and pearl accessories. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her doe eyes were widened with what appeared to be shock. Her hands clung to the edge of the table and her breathing was ragged.

"Uh…" he managed to utter out at her sudden appearance – she had just come out of thin air. "May…may I help you, miss?"

She stopped her heavy breathing for a second and froze.

"Uh…so….how did you get here, miss?" he probed.

"I-I…are you…are you talking t-to me?" she whispered, still refusing to meet his eye. Her words had caught him off guard since they were they only two in the entire café.

Still, he remained calm.

"Miss, I am talking to you. May I know what you are doing sitting at my table with me?" he said as politely as he could.

She bit her lip and thought for a moment before finally looking at him. He stiffened as he looked into her brown orbs. They were the most detailed eyes he'd ever seen, and they were a shade of dark brown – just like his coffee.

"What year are we in?"

He coughed on his drink and immediately put down his cup.

"Miss, are you serious?" he tried to keep his annoyance level down. Ok fine, some people liked to dress up in traditional Chinese clothing [Hanfu] or maybe dress up as a historical figure in a game or show, but this was taking it too far! He smirked as he decided he was going to play clever with her as well.

"So, who are you dressed as, miss? Diao Chan? Yang Guifei?" his smirk stretched even wider when he saw her eyes widen once more.

"Diao Chan? Did you say 'Diao Chan'? Thank god she's around here in this strange place too! Maybe it had something to do with Dong Zhuo? Probably one of his tricks again…" she rambled on as he narrowed his eyes at how strange her words were.

_Who is this girl? Why is she trying so hard to fool me into thinking she's from the Ancient times? It's not working…_

"So, sir, may I ask where Diao Chan is? I'm afraid I have no idea where I am right now!"

His jaw nearly dropped to the floor. "I'm sorry, miss, but your acting is just terrible. It's just the two of us here in this café. You're not fooling me into thinking you're some princess from the ancient times who's best friends with Dong Zhuo and Diao Chan."

This time it was her jaw to drop to the ground.

"W-what are you talking about! You cannot talk to a lady like this!"

"Miss," he laughed, "you're telling me you personally know Diao Chan?"

She nodded vigorously. "Well, not too personally, but we do know each from when we were both trapped in Dong Zhuo's palace. It was not a nice place at all!"

Zhou Yu was stunned into silence for a few seconds before face palming himself. "Miss, Diao Chan has been dead nearly two-thousand years."

She gasped and choked on the air, her skin turning a freakish shade of blue.

"Uh…" he suddenly said. "Are you all right?"

"So…so….it's around…2000 A.D….right?" she spluttered out, knuckles turning white due to the sheer pressure she was gripping the table with.

"2012 to be exact ,miss."

"…"

She remained silent for a minute as Zhou Yu sipped his tea, amused that she was still 'acting'. Despite his lack of friendliness towards her, he did think that she was rather cute (cuter than the girls in his class at university anyway) and that she suited her hanfu very much. The dark purple contrasted against her milky skin and her sash was wrapped tightly around her waist to show her figure. Her chocolate hair was twisted and curled in different shapes and patterns with flowery hairclips and jewelled ornaments.

"I don't think you'll believe me one tiny bit when I say this, but…" she piped up after a minute staring out of the window. Beyond the tiny frame were sky-high skyscrapers and people dressed in fashionable clothes with fashionable bags and shoes. She had stared intently at everything, not missing a single crack or split in the pavement. "…I'm from the Han dynasty. I'm not meant to be here."

Zhou Yu sighed and put down his now-empty mug. He was expecting her to say something like that. "Listen, miss. I know some people like yourself who really, *_really* _like history, but don't you think this is taking it too far?"

Her plump lips fell into a grimace and she gave a half-hearted laugh. "I knew you wouldn't believe me. But that's all right. I mean, I can't believe I'm in the year 2012…."

"What do you mean? Who are you meant to be dressed up as?"

"I'm not dressed up as anyone." She muttered. "And the name's Xiao. Xiao Qiao."

"Oh, well I have a friend who likes Xiao Qiao too. You two would be great friends." He replied as he stood up and started to put on his coat. "It was nice meeting you…Xiao."

"You still don't believe me, do you?" she muttered into her hands which were cupping her delicate face.

Her eyes fell as he shook his head.

"Never mind." She sighed as tears started forming in her eyes. "But thank you for taking the time to talk to me."

Zhou Yu felt a sharp stab of guilt as she sat there alone with only the empty cup of coffee to accompany her. As annoying as she was, he wanted to get to know this mysterious beauty.

"Tell you what, since you like Xiao Qiao so much why don't you come with me to the Chinese History Museum just opposite this café? They have a little bit of information on her."

She whipped her head around as stared at him.

"Museum?" she inquired. "What's that?"

* * *

"So _this_ is what a museum is! Gosh, the things here are so cool!"

He chuckled as her watched her run to all the different antiques and admire them. Before they left the café, he had advised her to take her hair down and her outer layer of hanfu (there were three in total, the last one being the undergarment section) to avoid unwanted attention. He then put his coat over her so that no one would notice her strange attire.

"So, where's the section about me? I hope it's well written!" she laughed. He rolled his eyes at her and led her to an aisle at the very back of the museum. Luckily for them, it was deserted with no-one around at all.

"Here it is." He said.

Her figure tensed as she stood routed to the spot.

"Something wrong?" he asked, walking past her to read the information next to the items.

She stood a good three meters away from him before her words came tumbling out.

"That hairclip was my mother's – she'd given it to me on my tenth birthday, and that fan was the one Da had bought me when mother died. The hairpins in the left batch were the ones I wore to mother's funeral, and the hairpins on the right were the ones I'd worn to my father's. Those three books were the ones that I'd always keep at my bedside for those sleepless nights and that sash was the one I wore to my cousin's wedding. Those pens were used for my calligraphy practices with teacher Zhao and that doll right next to the pens was called Lily – she was given to me by my grandmother when I was just three."

Silence shadowed them both as Zhou Yu struggled to read the cards as the same time as she was talking. Once he finished reading all the cards, he slowly turned round and applauded her.

"Not bad- you have a very good memory! But being able to remember all those things doesn't convince me you're a 2000-year-old girl, miss."

She ignored him as she carefully walked forward and pressed her hand against the glass.

"And that's the painting of me that was finished just hours ago."

"Miss," Zhou Yu started, back against the window. He hadn't looked at the painting yet, but he knew that it must've been nearly a millennium old. "How can such an old painting be only a couple of hours old?"

"It was finished this morning, when I was still in my dynasty. Obviously now that I'm here, it's going to be fairly old, but it feels so new to me."

He muttered something incomprehensible and turned round to look at it. "Seriously, you can drop the act now-"

His blood ran cold as the painting stared back at him.

It was the spitting image of her.

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Pleas review!


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